Philippine E-Journals

Web-based Interactive Learning and Teaching of the Human Immune Response to Pathogenic Activity

Demelo M. Lao | Bryan Karl M. Yuson

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

The challenge of learning and teaching becomes evident when topics discussed are difficult to appreciate and understand, e.g. at the molecular level; and, the field of biology is replete with these. Hence, a good target for interactive learning object (ILO) development is how the immune system will respond to pathogenic activity. We demonstrated here the use of simulation to learn and teach the basics of the human immune response to pathogenic activity implemented as web-based ILO. Using SCORM [1], two ILO modules were developed, one each for bacteria and virus, respectively. Assessment of the ILOs by randomly selected high school and college students, and teachers, using the MERLOT [2-3] instrument to assess the accuracy of informational content and effectiveness as a teaching tool. In a scale from 1 to 5, evaluation results showed that the three groups of audience consistently rated the ILOs with mean ratings of around 4.5 across three subject criteria of MERLOT, namely: Quality of Content, Ease of Use, and Potential Effectiveness as a Learning Tool. This suggests that the ILOs rated well above “very good” (i.e. 4), and which means that it met the standards in multimedia educational resource for effective learning and teaching.